At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died while deployed on the state’s three-year-old mission to deter criminal activity at the U.S. border with Mexico, according to state military officials.
Of those, the families of four service members received the newly authorized $500,000 death benefit and six families are waiting for a determination on whether they are eligible for the money. The remaining cases were denied the benefit or the service member had no eligible relative to receive the money.
The Texas Military Department has been tightlipped about troops serving at the border, though how many troops have died in connection to the mission came out during a hearing last week of the Texas House Committee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs. Members heard from state officials regarding implementation of a new law to provide death benefits for troops who die while on state missions.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-08-27/texas-national-guard-death-benefits-border-mission-14993111.html Source - Stars and Stripes
This whole thing has been a travesty, but then, what else is new with statewide politics in Texas? Abbott is demanding lengthy deployments within a geographically huge state and upending these “part-time” servicemembers’ lives, yet somehow also half-assing everything. They have no clear mission. They have no reasonable facilities. They have no productive coordination with federal resources (because this whole thing is an exclusively federal mandate). It’s all fucked, because the primary-voting GOP base actively hates brown people and the rest of the party couldn’t give a shit about anyone who doesn’t vote for them.